


Or at least I pretend

by toomuchchampagne



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Beauty editor Sansa, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, R plus L equals J, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 18:25:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6435532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/toomuchchampagne/pseuds/toomuchchampagne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two times when the rumor mill decided that Sansa and Jon were dating and it led to something more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Or at least I pretend

So maybe it was Sansa’s fault. She never should have offhandedly mentioned at work that she was seeing someone when it wasn’t true. In her defense, she had been trying to scare away Baelish and to make things less weird with Margaery now that they shared an office. Which totally worked, who knew you could be friends with your abusive ex-fiance’s new girlfriend? And that all it took for a man to understand the word “no” was for it to be followed by “I have a boyfriend”?

Also at the time, Sansa believed her lie would soon become true. But then things went south with Harry, and it was three months later, and she was still pretending to be dating some mystery man.

“He’s just private, I know he wouldn’t like me talking about us,” she told Margaery whenever she got too nosy—which was every time she got bored.

“Is he famous or something?” the brunette would ask.

“I’m not telling you anything,” she answered with a smile.

Sansa figured the mystery was more interesting to Margaery than the gossip, and her other coworkers wouldn’t dare to question her too much. The Stark name came with a lot of baggage, but it also brought a lot of perks. And if it led people to believe she must be involved with one of the most powerful men living in the city, well, good. Because that was the only thing keeping Baelish’s hands away. Working for a magazine whose CFO was obsessed with her had very few perks, it turned out.

The lie became part of her shield. It became part of her work DNA. Sometimes she invented fights with her imaginary boyfriend, intending to break it up and be done with the lie. Somehow she never followed through with it.

“I figured it out,” Margaery told her one day, wide smile and twinkling eyes.

“Figured what out?” Sansa asked, frowning, as she tried to clean up some foundation from her beauty editor desk.

“Your mystery boyfriend. It’s quite a secret you’re keeping, SanSan. It took some digging. I went through all your social media. Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram. I looked at all the pictures you posted and all the pictures you got tagged on. Clearly, I should have gone into investigative journalism, not fashion because I’ve got some major skills! But well, the pay is shit, and they don’t get any free clothes. Anyway, I figured it out!”

“Congratulations. But somehow I doubt it.” Her voice was light and playful as she racked her brain to try and remember what she had shared online.

“Hey, don’t doubt my skills! But seriously, no hate girl. I get it, it all makes sense now. For a time I thought you might even be making it up, can you believe it?” Margaery giggled.

Sansa smiled politely. “So what gave me away? I thought I was being so careful.”

“Don’t worry, I doubt many others will figure it out. I took me some time, to be honest. At first I didn’t even see it, but you were just hiding it in plain sight, weren’t you? You naughty girl!”

“Marg!”

“Sorry, sorry, I’m just so giddy! I can’t believe you’re actually dating a Prince!”

“Prince?”

“Well, his last name might be Snow, but his father is still a King. What?”

Jon Snow? Margaery believed that JON FREAKING SNOW was her secret boyfriend?

“N-nothing,” Sansa stammered. “Just don’t shout it around the office.”

“Oh shit! Right. You two didn’t spend so much time hiding your super romantic secret love for me to ruin it all ten minutes after I found out. Sorry, I’m just so excited.”

“It’s fine, just please don’t say his name around here again.”

“So it’s true, isn’t it?”

Sansa sighed. It was one thing to make up a fake boyfriend. It was pathetic and pretty insane, but it didn’t hurt anyone. It was a completely different thing to lie about dating her brother’s childhood best friend, who also happened to be royalty. But in her panic she had jumped that bridge and pretty much confirmed Margaery’s inane theory.

“Why do you think it’s him?” she asked instead.

She had a few pictures of herself and Jon. They weren’t close, or even really friends. But they did see each other at parties, family events, concerts, Arya’s recitals. Sometimes they were photographed together then. Sometimes she took pictures herself. But then she always took pictures of everything. And there was no way that whatever might have been captured could look romantic.

Margaery smiled, triumphantly. “First of all, he’s the most private public figure in Westeros, and your longtime family friend. And you’re the only person he allows to post pictures of him online. The clue was not in the pictures but the pictures themselves!” she exclaimed triumphantly, like she was in one of those detective shows.

“What do you mean allows?”

“Well, I talked to this Gilly girl who’s dating his best friend. She took lots of pictures from this party at The Wall where you looked pretty drunk. You have pictures of him there, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t have a single pic of him on her Instagram and all of her life is on it. When I asked her about it she said he asked her not to. That’s when it clicked. No one else, none of his friends have pictures of him, but you do.”

“He never told me. If I had known I never would have posted them.”

“Well maybe that’s why he didn’t tell you. How is it possible that you never noticed it until now? For someone who was so clever about keeping this whole thing a secret, that’s a really dumb mistake.”

“He doesn’t have any social media account, so it’s not like I was looking for pictures of him there. Anyway, now I have to go and delete those pictures.”

“Oh come on, don’t! Clearly he likes it, otherwise he would have asked you to take them down. Besides, I promise I won’t tell.”

Sansa sighed. She needed to deny it, set the record straight. This whole situation was ridiculous. “Margaery, what if I told you that this wasn’t at all what you think? I just made up that story about having a boyfriend to stop guys from work from asking me out.”

“Yeah, right. Nice try, Sansa.”

“I’m serious!”

“And I don’t believe you.”

“Fine. Just, this stays between us, ok?”

“I promise,” Margaery said earnestly.

Sansa sighed. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad.

In less than a week everyone in the office, from Larry the security guy to Intern number 5, knew about this story. People started calling her Princess. Sansa spent half of her days trying to stop the rumor and the other half fantasizing about painful ways to murder Margaery. The more she tried to deny it, the more people believed it. The angrier she got at Margaery, the more amused the brunette got. So Sansa readjusted her strategy and instead waited for it to blow over.

Then something weird happened. At the staff meeting one morning, Renly Baratheon asked her to interview Arianne Martell for an upcoming profile.

“I read some of your freelance articles, I think you would be a good fit for this,” he said.

She accepted gratefully, incredibly pleased by the praise. But it was impossible to ignore the real reason behind it. The only reason Renly Baratheon, editor in chief, had bothered to read some article published three years ago about feminism and the representation of women in Dornish culture.

Jon Snow. It was all thank to him, and the poor guy didn’t have a clue.

She was using him and his name. But it was too late, there was nothing she could do to truly stop the rumors. She had never outright confirmed it either. This whole thing had just spiraled out of control.

But then again, it also gave her the opportunity to write about something other than foundation, contouring kits or eyeshadows.

So yeah, she was using Jon Snow. And she felt terribly guilty about it.

Maybe she should have called him and explained the situation. He was a reasonable enough guy, and probably wouldn’t have been mad at her. But that wasn’t the type of relationship they had. They didn’t call each other to talk. She called him if she was in front of his building and had forgotten the code, or if Robb wasn’t answering his phone and she knew they were together, or if Arya had disappeared on them again.

Instead she sent a text to Robb, testing the waters.

_For some stupid reason, people at work think I’m dating Jon :-/_

_AHAHAHAHAHAH_

_Don’t laugh at my pain Robb. The worst part is, it seemed like I could get a promotion out of this. My boss is finally giving me a chance._

_Back up. How can anyone believe something so ridiculous?_

_I guess I told a few too many people that ‘I’m sorry but I’m already seeing someone’ and then Marg heard about it and tried to find out who I was dating. It still doesn’t really make sense to me why she thinks it’s Jon, but the more I try to deny it, the more she believes it._

_Sorry, but I’m still laughing at your pain._

_Robb, it’s not funny. Everyone at my work thinks I’m dating Jon. I don’t even know how she could have told so many people in such a short amount of time. I don’t know what to do._

_Well first you should probably tell Jon. You’re coming for drinks on Friday, right? He’ll be there too. You can talk to him then. I’ll try not to laugh too much._

_Thanks. But we both know you’ll be giggling like a school girl._

///

“Wanna go get some drinks?” Margaery asked, leaning over Sansa’s perfume covered desk.

“Nope,” she said, inspecting carefully the five almost identical trails left by different red lipsticks on her forearm.

“Come on! Are you still mad at me? I told you I was sorry. Besides I only told Loras and he was the one who told Renly. He’s my twin, you know I can’t keep a secret from him. I don’t know how anyone else found out!”

“Margaery,” Sansa said coolly, interrupting the other girl’s rant. “I’m still mad. But I also already have plans for tonight. We can go for drinks next weekend if this thing settles down.”

“What kind of plans?” her friend asked with a sly grin. “Jon?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. I’m seeing Jon tonight. And I have to tell him about this whole mess, and he’ll probably be very pissed at me. So thanks for that.”

“Oh no, are you worried he’ll break up with you just because of that?” Margaery asked, she seemed genuinely worried and maybe a little guilty.

“No. Because we’re not dating.”

Margaery shook her head at her. “Oh come on Sansa, why don’t you just admit it. Everybody knows anyway. I thought we were friends.”

“I thought so too. Then you went and told everyone about Jon.”

“See, you can’t have it both way. You don’t get to deny it AND be pissed that people know. Pick one and stick to it.”

“Whatever. I have an article to finish. See you on Monday.”

The brunette sighed. “See you on Monday. Good luck with Jon, Princess.”

Sansa arrived a bit late at the Iron Crown, Robb’s favorite pub. Her brother and their friends were in the upstairs room as usual. It had the typical Northern simple and cosy atmosphere—a fire place, wooden tables, comfortable leather couches and arm chairs and rebel songs from the North playing in the background.

Most of their little club of Northerner was already there. Robb, Theon, the two Jeynes, Umber, Sam and Gilly, Jon and a few others. The Jeynes waved her over and she sat down in between them before taking off her coat and purse.

“Hey, Sansa, you arrived just in time. It’s my round. Do you want some girly cocktail or a true Northern ale tonight?” her brother asked.

“Since you’re the one ordering, I’ll take the pinkest cocktail they have,” she said with a smile.

“Then you’re helping me carry everything back to the table.”

“But she only just sat down!” Robb’s Jeyne pouted.

“Would you rather be the one to help me carry all those beers, sweetling?” he asked his girlfriend with a tender smile.

“No?”

He laughed and gave her a quick kiss.

“Then come on, Sansa. Those drinks aren’t going to order themselves.”

Even though it wasn’t pink, she ended up ordering a Screaming Orgasm just to see Robb squirm.

“Arya’s still in Bravos?” she asked him as they waited.

“Yeah, she’s coming back next week. We should throw her a little welcome back party. Jon already volunteered his place.”

“She would love that. I’m sure she missed him more than she missed me,” she said smiling a little wistfully.

“Come on now, no need to be jealous of your fake boyfriend.”

“Ugh, don’t start. You didn’t tell him anything, did you?”

“Oh no, don’t worry. I’m letting you deal with your own mess.” He grinned.

“You’re enjoying this way too much,” she said as their drinks arrived.

“Maybe. I’ll give you a tip though. Don’t wait too long to tell him. Let him have one more drink, then just go for it. Drunk Jon isn’t as understanding as slightly buzzed Jon.”

“OK. Thanks.”

She drank her cocktail a bit too fast, trying to get as much liquid courage as she could before facing Jon. He was at the other end of their long table and she would need to get up to be able to talk to him without screaming.

“Everything OK, Sansa?” her Jeyne asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“You seem a bit distracted.”

“Sorry.” They had been talking about Jeyne’s new job as a teacher, and instead of being excited for her oldest friend Sansa kept thinking about Jon.

“Wait, were you just looking at Snow?”

“What? No.”

“You totally were!” her friend exclaimed, eyes wide in shock.

“Maybe I was looking in his general direction? I mean. I wasn’t like, staring was I?”

“Oh my gods! Do you like him? I mean, he looks really fine tonight, but seriously?”

He did look fine. Not that Sansa would admit it out loud. But his beard was at the perfect length, incredibly masculine without looking unkempt. His hair demanded to be touched. And his dark clothes fitted him well and hinted at the strength underneath them.

“It’s not like that. I just need to talk to him about something and I’m kinda nervous about it.”

“Are you going to ask him out?” Jeyne giggled, wiggling her eyebrows.

“No. It’s more like a work thing. I’ll tell you later. I should just get it over with now, or it will ruin the rest of our evening,” Sansa said, getting up.

“Hey Gilly,” she said to the blond sitting next to Jon, “would you mind switching seat with me for a bit? I need to talk to Jon.”

“Sure. I meant to ask Jeyne about her first day on the job anyway.”

Gilly was such a sweetheart. Sansa really needed to get to know her more.

“Thanks, you’re a dear. That’ll make her happy.”

Jon shot her a curious look as she sat down next to him, but he didn’t look as surprised as she expected.

“Did you want to talk about Arya’s party?” he asked her, leaning close so she could hear.

The deep sound of his voice and the familiar clean and earthy smell of him made her stomach twitch a little. She recovered with a smile.

“I wish. We need to talk about that too, but first I need to confess something really stupid.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “Confess?”

“Yeah. You know Margaery, right?”

He shrugged. They didn’t run in the same circle, but he knew of her.

“Well, we work together. And I guess we are sort of friends now.”

“She’s the one dating that asshole, right?”

‘That asshole’ in Sansa’s circle of friends could only mean one thing: Joffrey.

“Yeah.”

“Why are you friends with her?”

”She’s nice, OK? She’s not like him at all. She’s not like me either. I know one day soon, she’ll hurt him even worse than he hurt me. Anyway, that’s not the point. I told some people at work, including her, that I was seeing someone.”

“You are?” he asked, surprised.

“No. I lied. That’s the problem. Whenever Margaery would ask me about him, I just said he was someone private who wouldn’t want our relationship to be discussed. And then she went digging through my social media accounts, and decided it was you.”

He blinked. “Wait. What?”

“She thinks we’re dating,” Sansa said, her face burning in embarrassment as she tried to hold Jon’s gaze.

He frowned, taking in the information. “But you told her she was wrong, right?”

She sighed. “I tried. She didn’t believe me. I told her, I had been lying all along and she thought I was just saying that because she found out the truth.”

“Why would she even think it was me?”

“Because it makes for good gossip? I don’t know, you are notoriously both private and otherwise unattached, and apparently I’m the only person who has pictures of you on their Instagram?”

“Are you?” he seemed puzzled, a bit embarrassed.

“I guess so. You told Gilly not to post pictures of you online?”

“Yeah. That was a while ago though.”

“And did you tell the others as well?”

“I guess.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me? I never would have done it if I had known. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I don’t know, I guess I don’t mind it when you do it. You don’t post as much Gilly. And you only post nice pictures.”

This wasn’t what she had expected at all. She figured the only reason he had not told her to stop posting pictures of him was because he didn’t know she had done so in the first place. And now he was the one confessing to—to what, liking her Instagram account? Cyber-stalking her?

“I thought you didn’t do social media,” she said dumbfounded.

He smiled. “I’m not a complete First Man, Sansa. I do own both a computer and a smart phone. Of course I stalk my friends from time to time.”

Because she used her Instagram to show off her make up skills, it was kept relatively professional—or whatever professional meant in the beauty industry. But there were still things on it that the idea of Jon seeing made her blush. Like healthy amounts of cleavage, bikini pics from her Summer Isles vacation, that one very bootylicious shot of her working out and all those damned selfies.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, hiding her blushing skin behind her hair.

“So Margaery thinks we’re dating?”

“Not just her. Everyone at work. She told her brother, who told our boss, who told someone, and you know how it goes. Now everyone at work believes it as well.”

“Fuck.”

She winced, and hid her face behind her hands. “I’m sorry Jon. I never should have lied. It’s all my fault. I’ll take down those pictures of you.”

“Why is Robb staring at us laughing?”

“What?” she said, looking up suddenly. She turned around to glare at her grinning idiot brother. It only made him laugh more. She turned back to Jon. “Sorry about him. He thinks this whole mess is hilarious.”

Jon shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. Robb can be a jerk. I’ll get him back later.”

“He wouldn’t be laughing if he thought there was the tiniest chance we were actually dating. Anyway, I mean it. I’m really sorry, Jon. I shouldn’t have lied. I didn’t think I was hurting anyone, and now I got you involved in this mess.”

“Why did you lie?” he asked softly.

“There’s this man at work. He doesn’t really take no for an answer. And he’s also one of my bosses.”

“Baelish?” Jon asked.

She nodded, surprised.

“Arya told me about him,” he explained.

“Well it’s not just him.”

“Let me guess. Lots of other men after you?” he asked wearily.

“No. I mean, yes but I can handle those. I wanted to make things less weird with Margaery. I figured if she thought I was seeing someone the whole ‘dating my ex’ thing would be less awkward. And then I kept lying because I was scared people would find out the truth and think I was pathetic.”

“And did it work?”

“Yeah. I mean, I’m really pissed at Margaery right now. But it really worked. And since he found out I was dating you, Baelish even stopped eye-fucking me during staff meetings. I think he might even be a bit scared of you.”

“He should be. That guy is a disgusting dickbag, I’m glad you could get rid of him. Hells, I would come pick you up at work if you thought it would get him to back off for good.”

She smiled. “Thanks, Jon. It would be fun to try, but I’m afraid I’ve already used you too much as it is. I might even get a promotion out of this.”

“It’s fine. It’s not like I’m seeing anyone.”

“Thank you for being so understanding,” she said softly.

“I’m happy to help anyway I can, be it with getting that asshole out of your hair or you finally getting promoted.”

She would have kissed him right now, if Robb and the rest of their friends hadn’t been watching. This frustrated impulse led to another one.

“You really wouldn’t mind?”

“I told you I would have gone and kicked Joffrey’s ass if Robb hadn’t already done it twice by the time I found out about what he did.”

His voice was cold and smooth steel, but there was a fire in his eyes that lit a completely different one low in her stomach.

“Would you come by my office next week?” she asked a little breathless. “We could go for lunch. Talk about Arya’s party.”

He watched her carefully, all the gravity and intent of his grey eyes focused on her wild blue ones, and nodded.

“Sure,” he said.

She smiled, feeling like she just came home from a two hours run—the same adrenaline rush, wild heartbeats and breathlessness and the best kind of exhaustion.

“Good,” she said. “Text me to tell me which day you can.” She shot an apologetic smile at Sam who was observing them silently from across the table. “I should let Gilly get back to her seat now,” she told him. “Thanks again, Jon,” she said, kissing him on the cheek before getting out of her seat.

///

They agreed on Tuesday. She spent most of her weekend obsessing over the Arianne Martell interview and the beginning of her week preparing for it. And then suddenly, Jon was there, by her desk, a warmth in his eyes as he watched her work.

“Sorry,” she smiled at him. “I didn’t realized it was time for our date already. Let me get my coat.”

“No rush, I’m a bit early.”

She smiled, giddy. "Don't worry, I'm ready."

He watched her put on her coat and then offered her his arm. Long after they left her office, she was still holding on to him.

**Author's Note:**

> The next chapter is an unrelated AU with the same premise, where Jon's coworkers assume his made up girlfriend is Sansa Stark. But if some of you are interested I can continue this one as well.


End file.
